He graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1882. From 1885 to 1886, he worked as a decorator for Savva Mamontov, at his Private Opera. He also created some paintings and lithographs. In 1896, he held a joint exhibition, with Isaac Levitan and Alexander Popov [ru], in Odessa.

Thumb — Simov (far right), on his set for *Three Sisters*

In 1898, he decided to devote his career to working with the newly founded Moscow Art Theatre, where he would create designs for fifty-one performances and earn the admiration of the iconic actor, Konstantin Stanislavski.^[1] Simov not only created a new aesthetic for set design, he was also involved with ideological interpretations of the material, and the directing process. Together with Stanislavski, he began the practice of doing field research.^[2]

He expanded his activities in 1909, by designing a dacha in collaboration with the architect, Leonid Vesnin.^[3] In 1912, for unknown reasons, he left the Art Theatre; working instead at the Moscow Free Theatre [ru], the Maly Theatre, and the Opera Theatre at Stanislavski's acting studios.^[1]

In 1924, he designed sets depicting Mars, for the groundbreaking science-fiction film, Aelita, by Yakov Protazanov. The following year, he also served as an artist, under the direction of Ivan Stepanov, for The Stationmaster, a dramatic film based on a story by Alexander Pushkin.^[1] Later that same year, he returned to the Art Theatre, where he would stay until his death in 1935, aged seventy-seven.

Biography

References

Further reading

External links